What would you Pay for a 1967 L88 Vette???

In general, drag racing cars tend to have a short life; they're frequently broken, crashed or rebuilt with odd parts, and generally rode hard and put away wet. Finding one in good condition can rank as a collector's good luck, but the owners of this 1967 Chevy Corvette did far better at the Mecum auction on Saturday, selling this Vette for $3.2 million — a new auction record for any Corvette.Corvettes typically don't sell for millions of dollars, mainly because General Motors built so many of them over the years and because most owners cared little about swapping engines or other key parts. The car above breaks that mold thanks to a secret code: L-88. Designed by famedCorvette engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov as a race package, the L-88 featured a tuned version of the 427 big block V-8 good for far more than the 435 hp listed by the factory. Under various racing rules, Chevy had to sell a few copies to the public — but discouraged dealers from advertising it and let its existence be known only to a select few shoppers.

This car, one of only 20 L-88s built in the 1967 model year, was bought in Portland, Ore., and almost immediately taken to the drag strip, where it soon dominated West Coast NHRA racing for several years. The former owners bought the car in 1996, and found it still had the original engine, exhausts and extensive paperwork from its racing days; they later launched a full restoration, including the commission of a custom paint color to match the one it left the factory with.The $3.2 million hammer price from Mecum doubles the previous record of $1.6 million for a Corvette at auction, set by Barrett-Jackson in 2008 with the Pininfarina-built, one-off "Rondine" coupe. Most Corvettes will never approach a tenth of the value of this L-88, but there are a few even more rare editions in existence. Thanks to the rising value of high-end collector cars, we may not have to wait another five years for this Vette record to be broken again.

Thats one nice looking Vette.
I knew about the restricted numbers of certain cars built, sold, but not advertised, the Plymouth Superbird was also one of these type cars along with a couple special versions of Mustangs, but I was under the impression they had to produce 500 of the vehicles to be legal for sanctioned racing be it NHRA, Grand National (NASCAR), or SCCA.
I had a 1969 Dodge GT/X Hurst special which was basically a 1968 Dodge Dart stuffed with a 440 sixpack, 4 spd manual, and no mufflers.
Almost every manufacturer had two or three models of non-existant muscle/race cars that were primarily offered to race teams and/or celebrities of one type or another that were car enthusiests.

I heard someone talking about that on the radio the other day. They didn't have the facts like are presented here, the guys story didnt make sense actually until I caught the part on how and why it was so rare.